[Q] Faulty hardware? - Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everyone!
I''ve started to experience some rather annoying errors with my 1.5 year old phone just recently. My signal freezes completely when doing random tasks, it could be from just lying in my pocket to surfing the net. The 3G/H and the signal bars icon remains frozen even if I go and turn data off. When this happens, all apps immediately return "Connection error" of some sort, and when I change to WiFi the signal icons disappear and an spheric "stop" icon appears instead (probably indicating my signal error). However, my WiFi works perfectly. Only solution is to reboot the phone for the network to work again.
My second problem is with the battery. When I opened my phone I saw that it has began to swell a little in the middle. I also experience random shutdowns and ridiculously bad battery life. Can this be linked to problem 1 too?
As I live in Sweden, it's rather complicated finding an replacement battery seeing as it's extremely overpriced. Does anyone know where you buy either stock Samsung batteries or higher capacity ones (1750'ish) for a decent price?
Currently running:
Mandana 7.0 JW8, Semaphore 2.7.4sc (the problems are not related to the rom though, I've tried multiple roms)
Cheers!

dumle said:
When I opened my phone I saw that it has began to swell a little in the middle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, battery may need to be changed and only after that, you should try to resolve other problems, if any.
try ebay or goggling will get you tons of suppliers for batteries

Related

G1 shuts off randomly and thinks it's dead?

Hey, guys, I tried dong some research but I can't find anyone with a similar problem.
I've got a T-Mobile (USA) G1 and I've got Cyanogen's Eclair ROM flashed on it. Prior to flashing Cyanogen's ROM, I was using OpenEclair. OpenEclair was working [relatively] well until my phone randomly started shutting off. I thought it was a battery calibration problem, so I recalibrated my battery by letting it die completely and then charging it fully, but that didn't work. I flashed Cyanogen's Eclair and hoped that my problem would be fixed, but the problem still persists.
I can't really isolate the problem. My phone can shut off in the middle of a call, in the middle of writing a txt message, or without me even using it while it's in my pocket. It shuts off regardless of the battery level (I've seen it shut off at like 97%). This wouldn't be THAT bad except the phone refuses to turn on right after it shuts off. When I press the power button, the phone will show the G1 logo for a few seconds and then shut off again as if it was dead. Sometimes if I press the power button, the phone won't turn on and I'll see the LED flash red which gives me the idea that the phone "thinks" it's dead. In order for me to turn the phone back on, I need to plug in the charger. This is becoming extremely annoying.
Does anyone know what the problem could be? I would try wiping/re-flashing but I don't wanna lose all my data :/
Thanks,
Gerard
I'm having the same exact problem ever since installing cyanogen 5.0.7 Test 1... so im not sure whats going on but i went to T-Mobile today... and they said my battery is warped or somethin not to tech savy... yet it was working fine like totally so... hmmm anyone know anything?
yea this has happened to me too! It shuts off randomly then i cant turn it back on until like 30 minutes later without touching it. I noticed that it happened after i flashed a open eclair rom that wouldnt start but i did flash it correctly. I have wiped battery stats and dalvik cache. Well i hope we can get some answers
I had the same problem I have tried just about every rom out there so dont remember when it started but i ordered a new battery off ebay for 10 bucks and havent had a problem since
jjovro1611 said:
I had the same problem I have tried just about every rom out there so dont remember when it started but i ordered a new battery off ebay for 10 bucks and havent had a problem since
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you think it's a hardware problem? I find it kinda hard to believe that all of us coincidentally got this problem after installing Ecalir ROMs...unless Eclair destroys our battery somehow?
:/
yeah same here but mine started with Amon Ra 1.2.3 and the blue haze rom. I updated my recovery to the latest 1.6.2 I think and switched to htcclay's superfast and the danger spl slso tmobile is comping me a new battery just to be safe, although switching rom's seem's to have helped my battery life a little. hope this helps someone.
Have you tried replacing the battery?
PurpleLlamaLover said:
Have you tried replacing the battery?
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Nah, I'm part lazy and part unconvinced that it's a hardware issue. I mean if the phone reads that the battery is like 95% charged, why would it just give out randomly? I don't know much about hardware though, so maybe I'm wrong...
I want T-Mobile to get a new Android phone that's like incredible I want a new phone already damnit!!
im just gonna buy a battery on ebay or something because my battery does look kinda swollen so it could possibly be the battery. Gonna give it a try though
eric3043 said:
im just gonna buy a battery on ebay or something because my battery does look kinda swollen so it could possibly be the battery. Gonna give it a try though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You think you could update us when you find out whether it changes anything or not? :/
This phone gets me really frustrated because first it started shutting off and now i have a unresponsive lock screen! I push all the buttons and the screen is black like if its turned off. I have to do a battery pull but theres a risk of the phone not turning back on and shutting off on the g1 screen. I was planning to buy the battery today but i think im just going to use a different phone for now. I hope someone can really resolve this problem. Cant wait for the samsung galaxy s
For what it's worth, I started having the same issue last week with my G1. I think it's entirely coincidental that you switched to the CM 2.1 Test branch and your phone started getting screwy.
I looked at my battery as the first suspect, and what did I find when I pulled it out of the case? A badly swolen battery. By the end of the week, the swelling had gotten so bad that it was visibly bulging the plastic backing on my G1.
I took it to 3 separate T-Mobile stores looking for a replacement battery. The first two were of no luck, but the 3rd finally had one in stock. The CSR saw my battery and almost freaked out. She says I was lucky that it didn't pop because it was ready to at just about any moment.
Long story short, since replacing my battery, I have had ZERO issues, and my battery life has once again been phenomenal (well, for the G1).
I just checked my battery and I think it's possible that it's swollen. On the side where it says "htc Innovation," is it supposed to be perfectly flat? There's like a rectangle that's slightly raised above the rest of surface. I'm a little hesitant to buy a $50 battery if that's the way the battery is supposed to be.
Thanks,
Gerard
Spontaneous power off - sunspots?
Yes, this happened to me fairly frequently about 3 months ago. Now it happens (maybe) once a week.
In my experience, it isn't a Cyanogen issue - it would spontaneous die when I used Enomther's official rom, SuperD (one of the previous versions), and some others. That made me think it was hardware, but ... I haven't changed hardware, and still drop the G1 into my pocket like usual.
So if it isn't ROM software and it isn't hardware, what is it - sunspots?
grardb said:
I just checked my battery and I think it's possible that it's swollen. On the side where it says "htc Innovation," is it supposed to be perfectly flat? There's like a rectangle that's slightly raised above the rest of surface. I'm a little hesitant to buy a $50 battery if that's the way the battery is supposed to be.
Thanks,
Gerard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be perfectly flat. A new, good battery does not have the bulging rectangle in the middle you are talking about. Mine did the same thing. In fact, both sides were swelling. The battery would no longer sit flush in the back. My theory was simply that some sort of movement was causing it to lose contact and shutting off the phone.
If you take the battery out and lay it flat the table, you shouldn't be able to rock it by pressing an edge. If you can, your battery is dying.
I just bought a battery yesterday on amazon for 15$ You should check it out. Hope this battery resolves my problem. I also fixed my lock screen issue. I had set cpu to 120 instead of 128 so it unresponsive.
I have the same problem, and indeed when i now look at it my battery seems a bit swollen. I ordered a replacement battery on dealextreme. They have a few different battery replacements for the G1 for cheap (and lots of other things, regular customer) with free shipping. So i hope that will fix my problem .
I found this thread because I've been having random shutoffs as if the battery were pulled (black screen immediately, no "Shutting Down" prompt first), and it would only do this when NOT charging. This started happening when I first ran Firerat's all-in-one script but I think it was coincidental. So anyways, I found this thread after wanting to pull my hair out because of the random shutoffs, and sure enough, I pulled my battery and it's a bit puffed out. Time for a new battery.
My question is : does anyone think this is a result of the extra strain placed on the battery / heat generated from being overclocked? Once I get a new battery, I'd like to prevent it from happening in the future.
definately a battery problem. had the same thing on my g1. got into a whole big argument about how it WAS NOT PHONE in the cyanogen6 thread. guess what....it was my phone.
its not the rom. its your phone. seriously.
also, just to point out, most of us here got our phones relatively early in its release, and lot of people are having this problem now apparently. battery has life of 2yrs by my calculations.
if you can mimic a reboot with the phone plugged into usb or wall charger...it may be rom. but if you phone DOES NOT DIE while PLUGGED IN...ITS YOUR BATTERY.
Had the same problem with my 2008 bought g1, swollen battery and random shutdowns. Just inserted an new bought battery. Hope it fixes the problem.

Battery life in the last few days

Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.
Yes! I've had my N1 since January 2010. I stayed stock until recently when I installed CM 7.1 RC1 shortly after it was released. Battery life had always been great, both stock and under CM7, especially with SS4N1. Then, a few days ago it just fell off a cliff. I now get only about 7-8 hours, even with little to no usage. Before I'd barely lose anything if the phone wasn't being used (a percent every couple hours).
Now the Nexus One Battery Calibrator application shows a drain of ~200 mA or more constantly.
I've been tearing my hair out for the last few days, uninstalling apps right and left, trying in vain to figure out what's causing this. I even considered a full wipe and reinstall of CM 7, thinking that some system setting somewhere had gotten horked.
I've always had WiFi set to never sleep, since I'm usually either at work or home. I've also had preferred network type (*#*#4636#*#* -> Phone Info) set to "GSM auto (PRL)" for months.
I've not made any other changes I can think of that would've had such a drastic impact on power consumption. I didn't track all the app updates that happened around the time it started, so I suppose it could be one of those. But I've uninstalled just about everything and it's still happening.
I have the same issue! Just in the past week or so. I have about 50% battery then a hour or so later it's dead! I was going to get a new battery today but maybe it's a CM7 issue. I use the nightly as soon as they hit the mirror.
An update on this... There may be a big issue going on with T-Mobile or some recent update:
http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-g2-users-suddenly-suffering-from-huge-battery-loss/
Looks like other users on different phones have the same issue!
Thanks for that article, Lost Dog. Makes me feel a bit better. At least I know I'm not just going nuts.
My phone still has increased battery drain even if I put it in airplane mode though. It helps, but it's still much faster than before. This makes me really puzzled as to what the cause could be. How could the cell network still be causing increased drain if the phone's completely disconnected from it? Some sort of configuration information it received that persists even after the cell radio is turned off? EDIT: I may be wrong on this one, see below.
Last night I tried a complete wipe (using Temasek's full format "Format-signed.zip" first), and re-installed CM7.1 RC1 completely fresh. I installed only the minimal Google applications and a couple crucial tools (my password safe app). However, I'm still getting the same quick battery drain today.
I hope we (or T-Moblie) can figure out how to fix this. It really cripples my phone as a useful tool to have such short life!
EDIT: I'm going to try a workaround I've seen mentioned in comments on the TMoNews and Phandroid articles about this: limiting the cellular connection to 2G/EDGE only. It seems to have made a significant difference so far. I may have been incorrect then about airplane mode not having an impact. I'd only been checking current drain with the N1 Battery Calibrator app, and never left it in airplane mode for long. Anyway, I'll post back later this afternoon with results.
Ok, so switching to 2G-only for the cellular connection seems to have made a HUGE difference. The drain rate seems to be back at around what I'd expect. Everything else I left exactly the same (WiFi on, GPS enabled, same applications, etc.)
So, I'm starting to suspect something may be up with T-Mobile's 3G/3G+ service in some areas that's preventing phones from idling properly.
Anyone else want to give it a try?
Interesting, I'll switch over to 2G only and see how that affects my phone.
I've gone as far as wiping everything and that didn't help so if it really is a t-mobile issue then that would shed some light on the situation.
I see the same trend when switching to 2G only. Very steep power usage with 3G then a dramatic decrease in the discharge slope in 2G.
T-Mobile has an issue. The trick will be getting someone there to listen.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Here is my screenshot. You can clearly see when I turned on 3G. Dramatic difference. Looking on the T-Mobile forum there are many people seeing the same issue but there's mostly finger pointing and speculation as to the cause.
nir0th said:
Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.
ricky9237 said:
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.
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Click to collapse
Well, I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm skeptical. If it were the Maps 5.8 application that was preventing the phone from idling correctly, or transmitting tons of data, wouldn't we expect it to happen regardless of whether the phone was using the 2G or 3G radio connection? Sure, there might be a slight difference in the drain rate, but we'd still expect to see it in both cases. And yet the accelerated drain is alleviated completely by using only 2G. I have the Maps 5.8 application and can fix the problem by using 2G only. That indicates to me it's not an issue with the application.
I'll try uninstalling Maps tomorrow (I'm using CyanogenMod, so it's possible to remove it completely). Then I'll put the phone back on 3G and report back on what happens.
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
Glad I saw this thread. My wife and I both have N1s and have each been noticing unusually fast battery drain just in the last 3-4 days.
Last night I charged both phones to the same percentage, turned off 3G on hers and let them both sleep for a while. The phones are configured pretty similarly (stock, latest Maps installed, similar push settings etc). After about an hour and a half, my phone had lost 11% of its charge and hers had only lost 2%. That's enough of a delta for me to point to the 3G usage as the culprit. I guess I will be leaving my phone on 2G when I'm not using it if I am going to be away from a charger for a while.
It's NOT the Google Maps update.
Well, I did my experiment yesterday to rule out the Google Maps 5.8 update as the cause of this issue.
I'm running CyanogenMod so it's possible for me to uninstall Google Maps completely, not just the updates. I did so on Saturday night. Still set to 2G only, I removed my phone from the charger Sunday morning. A few hours later I enabled 3G. Later that afternoon I turned 3G off again.
I think the screenshot speaks for itself. Again, this is without Google Maps installed at all.
I asked around this weekend, and my friend's wife (also here in Portland, OR) is experiencing the same issue on her G1 on T-Mobile. Reading online I've heard about the problem affecting the MyTouch 3G, the G2, and many here with the Nexus One. The common elements seem to be: T-Mobile 3G service, particular models of phones, and some particular geographic areas.
Bottom line (IMHO): T-Mobile has a problem with the configuration of their 3G service in some areas, and it's preventing many phones from being able to idle/sleep properly, resulting in huge battery drain.
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
keenerb said:
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
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Click to collapse
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
Deliamber said:
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a G2.
2G has been much better than 3g, but still probably only 3/4 of my former battery life, optimistically. I checked "Use 2g networks only", same as everyone else. The graph above is a little misleading, since I really saw better battery life, that initial flat and quick drop actually averages out to "decent", rather than "horrific.
At the "Pulled SIM and SD card" mark I re-enabled 3g, so the drain afterwards is still 3g related.
Pulling the SIM doesn't disconnect it from the radio tower, you can still make emergency calls/etc. so it has to maintain a connection I suppose.
Twice I hard-reset the phone, pulled out SD and SIM, and still had huge huge battery drain. Powertutor said IDLE draw was 1437mw on average, no SIM, no WIFI, just sitting there on my desk.
In Airplane mode it'll last for days...
Wannagotopopeyes said:
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not familiar with Tasker. However, maybe it's just disabling cellular data use, not actually disabling the 3G radio? From what we've seen it appears the problem is very low-level, perhaps something to do with basic communication/negotiation between the cell radio in the phone and the towers, as there's no indication of particular application activity or significant data transmission that the Android OS is aware of.
In the T-Mobile support thread there are reports that T-Mobile is now acknowledging there's an issue with changes to their HSPA+ network in some areas.
I've had 3G off all day and my battery life is back to normal. I'm at 87% after at least 6 hours on battery. Yesterday I was down to less than 50% by this time. Luckily, I am able to be on Wifi at work so I don't have to deal with EDGE speeds, which make the Baby Jesus cry.
deliamber, you probably noticed this already but I'm also in the Portland market. It's gotta be a network issue.
I'm having the same issue on my N1 (I'm around the Portland area myself)
I did everything as well, 2g is the only thing that saves me..
Can't wait for a fix!

[Q] Galaxy S batteries - short life

Hi
Can see a number of threads about short battery life, none quite match mine:
When I got the phone about 6 months ago I took it abroad with me in the first few weeks. Battery life with normal usage was about 24 to 36 hours with fair use.
Dropped the phone, back came off, battery fell out and gold contacts got damaged.
Ordered replacement OE battery from Amazon. Looks identical to original. Battery life as before, for about the first two weeks. Then got worse and worse until down to about 4 hours. Sent it back, replaced. Replacement is going the same way.
Haven't done anything with the ROM, it's all as it originally was, albeit I've installed more apps since it was new.
Battery meter thing built into the phone (in Settings) shows nothing remarkable.
What is odd, and coincidental: if I leave the phone next to me in the house, it won't always pick up emails on ActiveSync (Exchange) unless I activate it (e.g. bring it out of power down mode). At which point you can see it's dropped Wi-Fi. The icon has gone. A second or two later it reconnects (though not before it's used some 3G data - 3G is OK upstairs, barely a signal downstairs as we live at the bottom of a hill so often drops to "G") and then brings down the emails.
This means it churns through 500MB+ of data over its own 3G connection in a month even if I don't take it out of the house, and even when Wi-Fi is available to it, it chooses not to use it. Wi-Fi reception is pretty poor, compared with e.g. our laptop (that shows excellent strength downstairs, phone shows one bar). It did not do this when I first got it. Curiously my old HTC phone did this too, it struggled to switch properly between its own 3G and Wi-Fi and just got stuck on one or the other. We are in a weak signal area.
Are these things related?
Has the phone become faulty? (Bearing in mind battery life much better with the original one)
Is it just a duff batch of batteries and I should send the battery back for a refund, and get one somewhere else?
Thanks
Mark
Typical behavior for a counterfeit battery but the other symptoms suggest that something got damaged and is stressing the battery. Try re flashing the phone. A sudden loss of power could potentially damage some system files.
Thanks rogem_kk - can I just clarify, when you say "reflashing the phone" do you mean resetting it back to its original state (I'm guessing there's a key sequence you press, I can look in the manual to find that out) or completely reloading the OS?
As regards "sudden loss of power" sadly this happens quite often, because the phone crashes now and again and I have to take the battery off the back and put it back in again. The Android OS seems able to be completely taken down by a failing application (I think Flash movies on web pages are the main culprits) quite readily but I'd got very used to that since my last phone was a Windows Mobile one (the old one not the new one) which had the stability of a damp cardboard box in a strong wind.
I mean wiping it clean and installing the ROM from scratch. Factory reset only removes your data and does not restore/replace system files.
Now may be a great time to flash a custom rom, if it all goes well then do a back up with Nitrality app or similar, while you're at it try out a modem i9000 ZSJPG, you can flash it separately via ClockWorkMod, doubled my battery usage with it, great reception & coverage, that way if you at least get a genuine SGS battery you'll get the most from it.
If you're unsure of flashing you'll need to get reading in the rom section, not too hard to learn.
Many thanks.
Down to 3 hours idle time now - it drops by the day.
Have emailed Samsung on the off-chance they can identify a counterfeit battery from the serial number, so I'll see what they say. Could make for an interesting exchange with Amazon (direct, not via a reseller or third party).
Argos appear to be the "official" resellers for Samsung products in our area but they don't actually sell batteries. As otherwise I'd be tempted to buy one there on the basis that it ought to be genuine, and compare. But haven't rebuilt the phone yet, waiting to see what Samsung come back with.
Hmmm...
"Problems like this, although seemingly severe, can occur when the
Android software on your phone becomes out of date. You can update the
software by simply downloading our Samsung Kies programme. Follow the
link below and choose option ‘save’. Then for safe installation of the
drivers, once save is complete, turn your computer off for a few minutes
and reboot the PC. Once fully loaded again, without opening any
applications on the computer, simply connect your phone to the PC with
the USB lead, and your phone should be automatically set you finish the
installation of Kies. When Kies loads and finds your device, you should
be offered an update that will iron out these issues.
If you require any further assistance, please contact Samsung again and
we will be more than happy to help."
I had one of those so called 'original batties' it was a load of rubbish. Still using original one but its no holding charge for as well after a year of use. Maybe time for a real replacement...
dtmark said:
Hi
Dropped the phone, back came off, battery fell out and gold contacts got damaged.
What is odd, and coincidental: if I leave the phone next to me in the house, it won't always pick up emails on ActiveSync (Exchange) unless I activate it (e.g. bring it out of power down mode). At which point you can see it's dropped Wi-Fi. The icon has gone. A second or two later it reconnects (though not before it's used some 3G data - 3G is OK upstairs, barely a signal downstairs as we live at the bottom of a hill so often drops to "G") and then brings down the emails.
This means it churns through 500MB+ of data over its own 3G connection in a month even if I don't take it out of the house, and even when Wi-Fi is available to it, it chooses not to use it. Wi-Fi reception is pretty poor, compared with e.g. our laptop (that shows excellent strength downstairs, phone shows one bar). It did not do this when I first got it. Curiously my old HTC phone did this too, it struggled to switch properly between its own 3G and Wi-Fi and just got stuck on one or the other. We are in a weak signal area.
Are these things related?
Has the phone become faulty? (Bearing in mind battery life much better with the original one)
Is it just a duff batch of batteries and I should send the battery back for a refund, and get one somewhere else?
Thanks
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgive the curtness of the email, am at work typing one handed while chowing down lunch
First point - you dropped your phone. I know that the new battery went okay for a while but is it possible that the phone itself may have been damaged?
Secondly, Email on Activesync over 3g will absolutely smash the hell out of your battery. Especially if you have push email going. Is it on push or is it set to check every so-and-so amount of time? Too short a period will kill the battery. The "Stock" email app that comes with Gingerbread 2.3.3 or lower seems to be just a big hog over push (for me at least). I also recommend changing the email "Amount To Sync" to a shorter number of days and set the amount of data to a lower value than stock (ie, "Headers Only" or 50k or something) so you download attachments on **your** terms.
Thirdly, you state you're in a poor reception area. This will most definitely affect the battery as the phone on a low signal or zero signal will waste battery trying to reconnect to the tower. Check your "Cell Standby" and see how muck time without connection you have. If it's anything above nothing, it's draining your battery. I recommend flashing a new modem (you'll need to investigate which one is good for your region/country/carrier) through ODIN (or Heimdall). Be careful when doing this and make sure you read up on the hows and what-to-do and what-not-to-do before you do - there is a (small) chance of you killing your phone and I do *not* want you to come back onto this thread and say it blew up (I want you to say "YAY THANKS WOGFELLA" ) Doing this voids your warranty so only do it if you either don't care or you really really want to fix your issue (and by default you don't care)
Fourthly, your wifi coming on and off - go to your Wifi settings, press your menu button and click ... advanced? Can't recall exactly (on ICS now). From there you can set your "Wifi Sleep Policy" to either "Never" or the other option that I can't recall. The default is set to turn the Wifi off when screen is off which of course means you lose your Wifi connection. **For your Email issue, try this first.**
Fifthly, your Wifi signal being weak in your display does not *always* equate to an actual poor connection. Sammy does many great things, but he does mess about a bit with icons and funny business. Check step four above and if you get bad Wifi reception when the phone is off (or while using it) then try messing about with your Router settings and also with the settings on your phone (take notes before doing so, I'm just throwing you ideas here....don't come back to me and ask me how to reset your router settings either!!!)
If that doesn't help then try flashing a custom kernel (kernel controls the Wifi). As above, doing this will void your warranty.
Sixthly, you say that everything was hunky dory and then went haywire. I reckon there may be an app doing funky things.
Try installing CPUSpy from the market and check to ensure your phone is going into decently long periods of "Deep Sleep"
Also, try installing the below app from this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
You're looking for high "Wakelocks" which will impact on your phone being awake instead of...well, asleep...when the screen goes off. Awake phone = cpu processing (even if it's not doing anything) = battery drain. Use Chamonix's recommendations on what is classed as a high amount of wakelock.
Facebook 1.7 for example, keeps the phone awake while checking notifications that just plain ain't there. For me, once I wiped this app, I regained about an extra 2-4 hours per day in use.
Seventhly, look over this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=939752
Has a heap of tips that helped me (before I got sick of stock Sammy and jumped to CM7 and then ICS)
Eighthly, and this is one that probably doesn't need to be said - cycle your battery and (controversial) bump charge. I mean, let the battery drain fully. Take the battery out for 5 mins. Put it back in and see if it turns on, and if it does repeat. Then fully charge to 100% and then unplug and plug back in. If your phone is already rooted then you can also wipe Battery Stats from Recovery.
Lastly - have you tried factory resetting your phone? It may wipe whatever it is that's making your phone freak out (if not the email) and you can start again. If you find that the battery goes bananas again after installing that app, you've found your issue.
So...to sum up:
Check your phone contacts.
Check your Wifi sleep policy.
Check your Email update rate.
Check the length of time you have the sync set for,
and the amount of data per email downloading.
Check to see if you are going into deep sleep.
Check to see if there are any apps holding wakelock (and bugger them off)
More extreme:
Factory reset.
Mess with your router settings if your wifi signal is still weak.
Very Extreme.
Flash Modem
Flash Kernel.
One thing not specified: What version Android are you running? SGS comes from Eclair up to (once Cyanogen and TeamHackSung get it rolling properly) Ice Cream Sandwich.
Hopefully *SOMETHING* in the above helps you.
Good luck!
Thanks for taking the time.
Sorted out the Wi-Fi sleep issue, CPU Spy showed the phone was going into deep sleep when idle, so no "smoking gun" discovered with that.
Reset phone, and set it back up again with basic email and no new installed apps. Have left it on default (minimal) donwload settings. Had already got rid of Facebook.
Battery life is better. Have begun reinstalling a few apps now and keeping an eye on it.
Will report back - thanks again all.
dtmark said:
Thanks for taking the time.
Sorted out the Wi-Fi sleep issue, CPU Spy showed the phone was going into deep sleep when idle, so no "smoking gun" discovered with that.
Reset phone, and set it back up again with basic email and no new installed apps. Have left it on default (minimal) donwload settings. Had already got rid of Facebook.
Battery life is better. Have begun reinstalling a few apps now and keeping an eye on it.
Will report back - thanks again all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No dramas - just be careful as CPU Spy will show length of time in deep sleep but a high proportion of wakelocks won't really be detected and those wakelocks are the ones that smash your battery when sitting "idle"
As you have reset then I think you need to let your battery calibrate first (let it drain fully and recharge fully a few times and that's all you can do if you haven't rooted your phone)
.. one more update..
Battery life is better, but not much better. It still won't last a day without charge even with very light use, 7 hours is about the maximum. I'm certain it used to be better than that when I got it e.g. it survived a whole day on holiday using email and maps quite a bit.
Have changed to 3 from O2 but will have to revert back as 3 doesn't get a signal at all downstairs in some parts of the house. Does mean the phone is going on and off network a lot at the moment.
I reverted to Samsung to tell them their link didn't work and they have sent a link to an authorised dealer for parts if I wanted to buy another battery. I'm all for buying the real thing which is why I bought an (apparently) OE one from Amazon which was about £16 not the £5 that some were.
However this is, er, forty four pounds for a tiny little battery.
http://www.4mysamsung.co.uk/cgi-bin/product.pl?PID=2986318&brand=&model=galaxy s&part=
They also sent links to repair centres.
Now I plugged it into charge earlier, and even after 8 hours, it was dead. Plugged it in again - beeps once as normal - nothing on the display - still not charging. Take battery out, put back in, repeat. Charging now.
Might make you wonder if that part of the phone got damaged e.g. the "socket" where the mini USB thing/charger goes in, but, it's always worked before. It doesn't for instance fail to detect if I plug into the PC and it's never done this before either.
Given how much the battery is and the fact it might be getting to the point of dying altogether I wonder whether to just get a quote for repair and go that way for certainty.
One might have thought it's as simple as: take the thing somewhere and have the battery tested to prove one way or the other.. but I'm really not sure where would do that other than the repair place.
I'd be prepared to try replacing the OS as suggested, but it does remain the fact that the thing worked better when I first got it and even after a complete reset it's still playing up so I feel a sort of mental paralysis over what's best to do now
I'll have a look at the wakelocks thing next when it charges again. If it charges

Xperia Z abnormal battery drainage and Wifi is DEAD

i bought my phone on 1st march and it was all fine (except the stamina mode led notification) until TODAY. I have experienced 2 sudden battery drainage on the same day and the battery can drop like 70% within an hr and the phone became VERY HOT. I have my stamina mode and location based wifi on.
Now my wifi and bluetooth is not working. I have rebooted my phone and switched off the location based wifi and trying to manually turn back on wifi and bluetooth but still failed! the wifi icon keep blinking but never able to turn on again. i also reset and erase everything of the phone and repair the phone once with the SUS. still NO LUCK!
I dunno if the abnormal battery drainage is something related to the location based wifi mode or the overheat killed my wifi or the wifi problem caused battery drain?. Has anyone experienced a similar issue? or just me? heres the battery screenshot.
Hi,
a member (November49) is having problems with their account, but they wanted me to post this for them in the meantime.
Hello mate,
I bought the Xperia Z the day it came out. I sent the first one back because I thought I was experiencing audio issues. The sellers claim they couldn't understand what I was complaining about, as they said caller audio was just fine.. but they sent me a new one anyway. I don't know, perhaps it is my network, because some callers sound muffled or like there is a separate layer of audio over their voices. I might change my sim card because the replacement unit is exhibiting the same behaviour.
Anyway, overheating and power drain. The phone was kind of ok. I was juicing it a fair bit because I watch movies, use the net, HSDPA+ constantly connected etc. All was relatively as expected, then suddenly, I was experiencing a massive power drain and overheating. Overheating while the phone was charging, really small increments in power when charging so it was taking forever, any use of the phone while charging would drain the battery (even though it is supposed to be receiving power), eg connecting to the net, watching movies, checking/sending messages, anything. The problem got so bad, I requested a second product return code from the dealer and was preparing to send it back.
Brain wave - "what if it was a software conflict with an app?". The phone is supposed to be some sort of behemoth and an app shouldn't have such an effect on it, but it was a thorn that felled St Jerome's' Lion. So I went over what I had installed recently and figured it may be a conflict with SystemPanelLite Task Manager. I immediately uninstalled it. Nothing.. no change. Eventually, the phone drained so badly, it shut down. I kept the charger plugged in, let it drink a little and powered it back up. I charged it to capacity. It was limping for a day or two, similar overheating problems and what not, did a second complete drain and shutdown, booted it back up.
Now it seems to be charging as normal, the battery percentage rising as it should, no extreme overheating while charging.. granted it warms up a little, but I'll take that over what was happening before. Tried streaming some video, watching native video, no overheating or exaggerated drainage. I think it's fixed. To be sure, though, I went to Sony's website, downloaded the software update tool, had it check my phone over, it said it was running the latest software, but I opted to do a factory reset and fresh install just to be safe. It recommends you do so if you are experiencing issues.
I'm in the middle of the fresh install now. If no one hears from me again on this issue, you can assume that uninstalling the offending app, draining and rebooting a couple of times and a factory reset fresh software install has fixed the problem. Well... that's what I'm hoping, anyway.
Good luck, buddy.
update: battery was heating up during use, not too much, but getting warm, losing about a percent every minute or two of watching video. Boxed it up. Sending back. I hope the fix worked for you as it did temporarily for me, but ultimately, I think I have a faulty unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q]Sudden signal loss

Hi folks,
so recently I noticed that my p880 randomly loses signal wich only gets solved by restarting the phone.
Also it starts draining battery extremly fast. Like 2% in a minute.
I tried using different roms but in the end nothing changes in this regard.
What can I do? Did you guys encountered a similar problem?
Any advise is much aprechiated.
Thanks
Really? If you'd have followed or at least read a bit few the threads of the different
roms you tried than you'd probably noticed that this is a common and known
problem of our device. Neither is there a fix for it, nor is the cause of this problem
known. The signal just drops and the phone constantly tries to reaquire it (causing the battery drain)
but it seems that network recognition fails.
So whether you live with it (like I do) or you buy another phone,
as I wouldn't expect a fix for that soon.

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